Too Many Papa Bear Companies

“JUST ORDER MORE WIDGETS! I’D RATHER HAVE TOO MUCH AND KEEP THINGS RUNNING THEN NOT HAVE ENOUGH AND STOP THE LINE.” How many have heard something like that? I’d be very surprised if you haven’t. I was dealing with a materials guy who was held accountable on uptime, I know a shocking statement right? I can tell you it was fun getting him from the “papa bear mentality” to the “baby bear mentality.”

Lean is about right sizing; I like to call it the Goldilocks zone: Not too much (papa bear’s items), not too little (mama bear’s items), and just right (baby bears or Goldilocks’s items).

To many times we don’t right size. This point really hit home for me one day when I went grocery shopping for the first time as a young adult. My first mistake was I was hungry and went shopping! Even the boxes that the food was in looked good to eat. I went to the fresh fruit aisle and I saw the best looking strawberries that I have ever seen or probably will ever see and would you believe they were on sale! I think you know where this is going. I bought way too many, trying to be a papa bear, and I ended up dozens of spoiled strawberries.

So what do I do now? For starters I don’t go to the grocery store when I’m hungry. I don’t get tempted to buy too much just because the item is on sale. Lastly I don’t buy as much at each visit and just stop by the grocery store more often. Yes it’s more trips but they are much faster trips. If I’m craving apples one day and strawberries later that week I can get exactly what I want when I want.